Accented Beats

Depending on whether the music is duple, triple or quadruple time, some beats are accented (louder) than other beats. In duple time the first beat is louder, in triple time the first beat is louder and in quadruple time the first beat is louder and the third beat is quite loud.

In the example below, the top stave of music is in triple time, so the first beat of each bar is louder. The second stave of music is in quadruple time, so the first beat is loud and the third beat is quite loud.

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The rule is:

Duple Time             Strong Weak, Strong Weak.

Triple Time             Strong Weak Weak, Strong Weak Weak.

Quadruple Time      Strong Weak Medium Weak, Strong Weak Medium Weak.

Baxter, Harry and Michael Baxter. The Right Way To Read Music. Tadworth: Right Way, 1993. Print, p.20.

Anacrusis or Up Beat

An anacrusis, also known as an up beat, is when a piece of music does not start on the first beat of the bar. In the example below, the music starts on the second half of the fourth beat. So, the last bar will contain three and a half beats to make this bar complete to four beats. If the first bar is incomplete, then the final bar will be incomplete.

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In the next example, the music starts on the fourth beat, so the final bar contains only three beats.

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Brown, James Murray. A Handbook Of Musical Knowledge. London: Trinity College of Music, 1987. Print, p. 24.

Simple Time and Compound Time

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There is a simple way to work out whether a time signature is simple time or compound time. Simple time and compound time signatures can be duple, triple or quadruple. In compound time, the top number is 6 and higher, and can be divided by 3. Duple time has 2 beats, triple time has 3 beats and quadruple time has 4 beats. The bottom number 2 of the time signature represents a minim, number 4 a crotchet, number 8 a quaver and number 16 a semiquaver. The top number represents the number in each bar. So, 2/4 has 2 crotchets in each bar, 6/8 has 6 quavers in each bar and 6/16 has 6 semiquavers in each bar.

Simple Time

Duple:  2/2     2/4     2/8       Triple:  3/2     3/4     3/8       Quadruple:  4/2     4/4     4/8

Compound Time

Duple:  6/4     6/8      6/16      Triple:  9/4    9/8      9/16      Quadruple:  12/4     12/8      12/16

In the piece of music below, the C time signature, also known as common time, is 4/4:

                                                                                          

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When the C has a line through the middle, also known as cut common time, the time signature is 2/2 or 4/2.

The music below is an example of 2/4 time:

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The music below is an example of 6/8 time:

                                                                                                            

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Brown, James Murray. A Handbook Of Musical Knowledge. London: Trinity College of Music, 1987. Print, P.24.

Technical and Sol-fa Names

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Each note of the scale has a technical name and a sol-fa name. If we take the C major scale as an example, the first degree is C, second degree is D, third degree is E and so on. In the scale of F major, the first degree is F, second degree is G, third degree is A and so on.

Degrees Of The Scale And Their Technical Names

1        Tonic
2        Supertonic
3        Mediant
4        Subdominant
5        Dominant
6        Submediant
7        Leading note
8        Tonic

So, in the scale of C major, C would be the Tonic and D would be the Supertonic.

Degrees Of The Scale And Their Sol-fa Names

1         Doh
2         Ray
3         Me
4         Fah
5         Soh
6         Lah
7         Te
8         Doh

In the scale of F major, F would be Doh, G would be Ray and so on.

The picture below shows the Sol-fa names in A major:


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Warburton, Annie O. Basic Music Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print, p. 29.

Working Out The Scale From The Key Signature

If you are unfamiliar with key signatures, there are ways to work out the scale.

If we look at the example below, on the first stave the key signature has flats. Look at the order of the flats; Bb, Eb, Ab and Db. The second last flat is the scale name, so it is Ab major. The second stave has two flats Bb and Eb, so this example is Bb major.

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When working out sharps, we look at the last sharp, raise it a semitone and that gives the scale. The order of the sharps in the example below; F#, C#, G#, D#. The last sharp is D# and up a semitone is to E, so the scale is E major. 

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The only exceptions are F major, which has a Bb, so we have to remember this one. We also must remember that C major has no sharps or flats.

Simple Time Rests

Rests are written in music to show a moment of silence. Below are the notes with their corresponding rests on the right. The semibreve rest has four beats, the minim rest has two beats, the crotchet rest has one beat, the quaver rest has half a beat and the semiquaver rest has a quarter of a beat.

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However, the crotchet rest shown in the picture above is an old style of crotchet rest. The rest used today is written as this lineseen in the Glockenspiel section in this piece of music below.

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Warburton, Annie O. Basic Music Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print, p. 1.

Key Signatures

There are twelve different scales in music. Each scale has its own key signature. Here are the major scales that use sharps #. G major has one sharp, D major has two sharps and so on.

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Here are some examples of key signatures that use flats b. F major has one flat, Bb major has two flats, Eb major has three flats and Ab major has four flats.

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The scales that use sharps # are G, D, A, E, B and F# major. The scales that use flats b are F, Bb, Eb, Ab and Db major. The scale of C major does not have flats or sharps as it does not contain any sharps or flats in the scale.

An easy way to remember if the scale has sharps or flats is; if the scale has sharp in the name such as F#, it will contain sharps. If the scale has flat in the name such as Bb, it will contain flats. If the scale does not contain flat or sharp in the name such as A major or B major, it will contain sharps. The exception to the rule is F major which has one flat, so we need to remember this one.

So examples are: remember F major, one flat and C major, no sharps or flats.

       A major-sharps, F# major-sharps and Bb major-flats, Eb major-flats.

Warburton, Annie O. Basic Music Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print, p. 32.